Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the feasibility of BP's plans to become net zero by 2050; and if he will make it his policy to encourage other oil companies to set net zero targets.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government welcomes BP’s new 2050 Net Zero goals for its worldwide business. These should allow the company to make a significant contribution to climate action. It would not, however, be appropriate for the Government to assess the feasibility of BP’s plans given the international and commercial context in which they will be delivered.
More generally, while welcoming the action already being taken to reduce emissions, the Government would encourage the oil and gas sector to build ambitiously on what they are doing. Major and rapid cuts in unabated emissions are essential to meeting global climate goals.
The Government has put the UK at the forefront of global action on climate change and we are determined to build on the leadership we have shown to date, notably through our world-leading net zero target set in UK legislation in June last year. We are determined to use our Presidency of this year’s crucial COP26 climate negotiations to promote ambitious action to deliver the transformational change required by the Paris Agreement.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she is taking to ensure that Government grants for start-up companies are not fraudulently obtained.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Government has robust checks in place and carries out due diligence through its Delivery Partners when issuing grants to both start-ups and established businesses. Where recipients have been found to act fraudulently serious action will be taken.
Through Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) competitive funding is provided to businesses, including start-ups. UKRI have a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and there are stringent controls and checks in place to stop fraud from happening throughout the lifetime of a project. These include:
In addition, UKRI have a dedicated investigations team tasked with identifying individuals and companies who submit false information in order to obtain funding. Relevant information and intelligence is shared with Action Fraud and CIFAS, and where appropriate UKRI will apply as many sanctions as possible, including criminal prosecution and civil recovery. UKRI take all reasonable steps to prevent any organisation found to have acted fraudulently from accessing future funding, on behalf of the whole of Government.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the environmental effect of oil exploration operations in Poole Bay.
Answered by Claire Perry
Corallian Energy Limited submitted an Environment Statement to BEIS’s OPRED team to support an application to drill an offshore appraisal well in Poole Bay. The Environmental Statement, the comments received from statutory consultees and the representations made in response to the public notice were reviewed by the Department and it was concluded that the proposals would not have a significant adverse impact on the receiving environment or the living resources it supports, or on any protected habitats or species or other users of the sea. The decision can be found under Corallian Energy Limited at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-environmental-statements-reviewed
BEIS is extremely aware of the sensitivity of this stretch of the UK coastline, and the area in the immediate vicinity of the drilling location. This was therefore given detailed consideration during the review of the proposals, and appropriate mitigation was included to minimise as far as possible the risk of an accidental spill.
Officials in OPRED’s Offshore Environmental Inspectorate have visited the rig undertaking the drilling operations in Poole Bay and are content that operations are being undertaken in a responsible manner and in compliance with regulatory requirements.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 17 May 2018 on Energy Policy HCWS690, when he plans to publish the consultation on energy policy.
Answered by Claire Perry
As set out in the Written Statement, the Government committed to consulting in summer 2018.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 17 May 2018 on Energy Policy HCWS690, when he plans to publish the consultation on energy policy.
Answered by Claire Perry
As set out in the Written Statement, the Government committed to consulting in summer 2018.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to develop a new power generating plant with Hitachi; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government remains committed to decarbonising our economy and last September we published our Clean Growth Strategy which set out a range of actions Government is taking. New nuclear has a crucial role to play as we seek to transition to a low carbon society.
Government regularly engages with developers in the UK including Hitachi regarding the construction of a new nuclear power station. These commercial discussions are ongoing and no final decisions have been made. These discussions are commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to encourage the use of bioplastics in the production of plastic items for everyday use.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
We have been working closely with the British Plastics Federation and other major stakeholders to promote the sustainability of the plastics industry and encourage its contribution to the circular economy. In the recent Industrial Strategy White Paper we committed to publishing a new UK Bioeconomy Strategy. This will provide a framework within which government, industry and the research community can support the development of bio-based products and processes, including bioplastics.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to encourage consumers to switch energy providers.
Answered by Claire Perry
The number of customers switching between energy suppliers continues to increase – approximately 7.8 million energy switches took place in 2016 - an increase of nearly 1.7 million on 2015.
The Government worked with Ofgem and industry to change the industry rules so that it is now possible for customers to switch suppliers in up to 21 days. This has been enshrined as the minimum standard in the Energy Switch Guarantee, launched in June 2016. Prior to this it took around 5 weeks to switch.
We continue to work with Energy UK who administer the Guarantee to strengthen and promote it to give consumers greater confidence that the process of switching energy supplier will be simple, speedy and safe.
We are working closely with Ofgem on their switching programme to enable consumers to switch their energy supplier reliably and quickly delivering next day switching as a new industry standard and improving reliability of the switching process through better management and oversight of industry data.
The Government has provided £1.3m funding for the Big Energy Saving Network and Big Energy Saving Week this winter to fund third sector organisations and community groups, to support vulnerable consumers so they can switch and save.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on minimum levels of domestic content in renewable energy construction projects after the UK leaves the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Through our Industrial Strategy, we will strengthen the growth of markets for clean technologies in the UK, to support the development of the UK supply chains that will create jobs and drive future exports. We will focus on building long-term competitive advantage, to maximise the UK’s share of global markets as they are transformed by the shift to clean growth.
We introduced Supply Chain Plans as part of the Contract For Difference allocation round requirements for low carbon electricity projects of 300MW generating capacity or more. The introduction of Supply Chain Plans has helped drive behavioural change with developers, increasing competition, identifying barriers to entry and enabling more companies to compete, including UK companies. For example, UK content has increased to 48% since the first CFD allocation round.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to publish the Clean Growth Plan.
Answered by Claire Perry
We want the Clean Growth Plan to be an ambitious, robust and clear blueprint for Britain’s low carbon future, and are working with colleagues across Government to ensure it meets these criteria. We intend to publish that plan when Parliament sits again after summer recess.